Personalised Comments Essay

Custom StudentMr.
TeacherENG
1001-04
11 July 2017

Personalised Comments

The presenter refers to her own experience several times in the text. She uses the expressive function using the first person story. Line 79-80: ‘First time I heard him say that I burst out laughing in the dressing room… some people er visiting QVC… I just think must sound very very strange if you… ‘ Here she refers to one of her experiences. The reason she might be doing this is to create solidarity with the audience. She attempts at being conversational intimate so that the audience feels like they know the presenter and will trust what she is saying.

Line 62-64: ‘I’ve just realised something (2. 0) but all will become clear (2. 0) in just a couple of moments. I have changed the ear in which I wear my earpiece… I used to wear the earpiece on my right ear’ She speaks about herself here as an incident has occurred and she feels obliged to explain what has happened in order to include the audience. She adopts a chatty, friendly tone. The presenter uses personalised comments to be deliberately informal. 2) Generic Features of Discourse The text has a number of generic features that are found in this type of discourse and spoken language in general.

The presenter possesses some of these features, although they are kept to the minimum. This could be because she is a professional and experienced in this field. She makes informed comments, which adds authority to her utterances. She does this by using pseudo-scientific talk. Pseudo-scientific talk and Field Specific Lexis She uses pseudo-scientific lexis throughout the text as it gives the product prestige and this acts as a persuasive device. Line 13: ‘Look at the shape of the vial it’s almost as slightly’ Here she uses pseudo-scientific ‘vial’, which is also a quasi-technical word.

This adds prestige to the product and it makes her sound professional, and authority and the repetition of this lexeme adds emphasis. Line 23-24: ‘… turn it to the light here you can see that swirl of silver’ Phonological patenting like sibilance and alliteration make the products more memorable. The use of sibilance in ‘swirl of silver’ adds rhythm and interest in the description of the product in order for the presenter to attract the attention of the audience. Line 40: ‘Have a look at these the diomodice saltier dangle drop earrings’

Here she guides the audience, using a mitigated imperative form, to look at the product without sounding too authoritative. She uses pseudo scientific field specific lexis related to diamonds, to add weight to her utterances, and uses a neologism. This reference to ‘diomodice’ sounds precious and exclusive. Alliteration is also evident ‘dangle drop’ which works as a cohesive and attention seeking device. Although the information is al times technical and scientific, more often it is emotive and based on opinion rather than fact as throughout the data she describing the products suing personal endorsement and opinion, often implicitly.

Discourse Markers She uses discourse markers to indicate the beginning or the end of a segment of the programme. Line 8-9: ‘Now you could go into some of the most competitive jewellery stores’ Line 23: ‘Now look as I just turn it to’ Here the discourse marker ‘now’ is used as a tool to draw attention to what she wants the audience to look at. In the former utterance the presenter uses the conditional form ‘could’, which is more of a mitigated directive so it has a less authoritative feel. Deictic words like ‘now’ and hyperbolic adjectives ‘amazing’ are as Ogilvy describes them, ‘all shop worn clichis’ that work in the world of advertising. In the latter utterance she uses an imperative ‘look’ as the audience are being urged to buy.

This adds a degree of immediacy and authority and puts the presenter in position of power. Line 36: ‘Now previously over 500 of you have gone for this particular pendant’ Line 89-90: ‘… but never mind. Let’s have a look at what er we are going to be talking about now’ Discourse markers make it clear when there is a subject shift and draws the audience’s attention to what the presenter will be talking about next.